2 top ICC officials resign after reports of 'over-spending' at 2024 men's T20 World Cup

The International Cricket Council (ICC)'s head of events Chris Tetley and general manager of marketing & communication Claire Furlong have resigned ahead of the world body's Annual Conference in Sri Lanka on Friday, July 19.

While some have claimed that these are routine, long-pending resignations, the development comes amid extensive reports of unjustifiable overshooting of the budgets for the recently concluded 2024 men's T20 World Cup.

According to News18, Associate Member Director, Pankaj Khimji had called for an audit of the expenses during the USA leg of the tournament in a letter to all members. Many other Board of Directors are also said to have criticized the spending during that phase.

"Mr Khimji wrote a letter to all the members and highlighted the conduct and expenses during the USA leg of the T20 World Cup," the report cited a source as saying. "A lot of action around this was expected during the ICC meeting in Sri Lanka later this month but the resignations have already started coming in."

The ICC was hoping to offset the spending with the high ticketing prices but it didn't work, leading to a heavy loss for the USA leg.

"Money was being spent left, right and centre without any vision. They were spending thousands of dollars on activations at a single site and failed to attract encouraging responses. There was no planning whatsoever. Few individuals chose to spend money the way they wished to,” the report cited a USA Cricket official as saying.

The ticket pricing for the matches, especially ones where India participated, was in lakhs. This only brought more criticism to the ICC as often seats were seen empty, even in important games, or the fans were reported to be disappointed.

USA officials accuse ICC of favoritism

Although the USA hosted the first half of the 2024 T20 World Cup, the local cricketing body, USA Cricket, wasn't involved in the decision-making. Instead, ICC-picked officials under the banner of T20 USA Inc. managed the proceedings with sports advisor Brett Jones as the CEO.

"From where did Brett Jones come?," the USA Cricket official added in the same report. "He recently moved to the USA from Australia and was appointed CEO of a firm responsible for delivery in the USA. He is very close to Chris Tetley and no wonder he got a high position."

The Annual Conference will take place in Sri Lanka from July 19 to July 22, with discussions on the World Cup expected on the first day.